Filip MITRIČEVIĆ

The Ways in Which I Never Thought About My Great-Grandfather: An Essay on the Potentials of Photography as a Historical Document*

Summary

Used a lot more often as a primary source or, simply, as a tool of illustration, photography is rarely the subject of theoretical analysis. The theoretical assumptions used in this paper correlate photography with the accompanying text and question the limitations of contextuality, which photography assumes. The terms “recognition” and “excavation” set the border between the capacity of the observer to establish a personal connection to the subject and to come to terms with it as a part of his lived experience and analysis independent from that. Using the example of photographs of his great-grandfather, a prisoner of war during World War II, the author emphasizes the separation between himself – the observer – and the subject (one which implies an emotional connection) that represents a distant object of historical analysis. Correlating the photograph and the accompanying text, the author questions the limits of the context of the visual representations and limits of the factual extraction. By posing new dilemmas and questions, photography has shown its limitations as a provider of definitive answers. A medium that has an undoubted potential to capture an instant, thus, providing a piece of information, is highly limited in its capacity to serve as a tool for narrative building. Eventually, photography is defined within the liminal space between knowledge and the lack thereof.